Marvel, Fox Battle Over ‘X-Men’

Saying that Marvel Enterprises Inc. is sponging off the success of last year’s “X-Men” movie with a thinly disguised copycat, News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox sued to stop production of Marvel’s planned “Mutant X” television show.

In turn, Marvel filed suit against Fox in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday, just 13 minutes after Fox filed its complaint. In its suit, the comic book publisher and toy maker says “Mutant X” is “totally different” from the X-Men.

The lawsuits follow Fox’s enormously successful “X-Men” movie, which took in $163 million in box office receipts last year. Marvel’s “Mutant X,” a collaboration with Tribune Entertainment Co., is in production in Toronto and is expected to be broadcast on Tribune affiliates in the fall.

Marvel originally conceived the X-Men series in 1963, featuring a team of young men and women who are born with superpowers. Marvel sold film rights to the X-Men characters to Fox in 1993, and did not receive any of the film’s box office receipts last year.

In trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange, shares of Marvel, a unit of toy maker Toy Biz Inc., closed at $1.90, down 5 cents.

Shares of Fox Entertainment Group Inc., parent of 20th Century Fox, closed at $21.09, up 41 cents.

Shares of Tribune Co., parent of Tribune Entertainment Co. and owner of the Los Angeles Times, rose 30 cents to close at $41.20. Tribune is also a defendant in the Fox complaint.